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A.N. Mochalov

Territorial Structure of State as a Tool of Ethnic Diversity Management (Constitutional Law Regulationin the BRICS Countries)

2017. No. 3. P. 154–173 [issue contents]
A large number of modern states are characterized by ethnic-territorial fractionalization. It meansthat separate regions of a state might be territories of concentration of ethnic groups whichconstitute a significant part or a local majority of population within these territories but have aposition of national minorities within the state as a whole. The article discusses the ways in whichthe ethnic structure of population is reflected in constitutional-law regulation of territorial structureof a state. The comparative law analysis of the ‘ethnic’ factor in the constitutional rulings concerningterritorial structure is represented in the article. The author has studied constitutions of the BRICScountries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to demonstrate that all these states despiteof their geographical positions and historical backgrounds take into consideration ethnic-territorialfractionalization in organization of the territories and choice of an appropriate constitutional formof such structurization. In the article the distinctions between the approaches in different states aredescribed and explained. In the author’s opinion, a state territory serves as a tool of ethnic diversitymanagement. A state’s constitution can give a special legal status to a region inhabited by an ethnicminority and stipulate self-government (or self-administration) for such regions (so-called territorialaccommodation of ethnic groups). Conversely, internal borders can be drawn in a manner to preventdomination of an ethnic minority in a region. Self-government, in turn, can be exercised within differentconstitutional-law frameworks such as federalism, territorial autonomy and creation of specialterritories under constitutional protection. The author shows different approaches and mechanismsimplemented in the BRICS countries and concludes that a mechanism of territorial accommodationof an ethnic group in a particular case depends on political demands of the group with respect to‘its’ territory. At the same time, self-government of ‘ethnic’ regions not always leads to deepeningcleavages between ethnic groups. The opposite is true: it can contribute social integration
Citation: Mochalov A. (2017) Territorial'noe ustroystvo gosudarstva kak sposob upravleniya etnicheskim mnogoobraziem (konstitutsionno-pravovoe regulirovanie v stranakh BRIKS) [Territorial Structure of State as a Tool of Ethnic Diversity Management (Constitutional Law Regulationin the BRICS Countries)]. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 3, pp. 154-173 (in Russian)
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